‘Chautala misguiding people on SYL’Hisar, June 30
Senior Congress leader and former Haryana Irrigation Minister, Shamsher Singh Surjewala today questioned Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s claim that the SYL canal would be completed within a year.

‘Call all-party meeting on SYL’Karnal, June 30
The Haryana Unit of the Nationalist Congress Party here today demanded that the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr
O.P. Chautala, should immediately call an all-party meeting on the SYL issue.

HCS officer's
houses to be searchedSirsa, June 30
Former Estate Officer Daveshwar Dayal has been taken to Karnal and Chandigarh under police remand.
District police chief A.S. Ahalawat said today that Daveshwar Dayal was taken to Chandigarh and Karnal to recover important documents of the department.

Karnal students to get Kalpana Chawla awardsKarnal, June 30
The Karnal district administration will give away the Kalpana Chawla awards to meritorious students of the district in memory of the Indo-American astronaut, Ms Kalpana Chawla, on her 43rd birthday on July 1 here.

Priyanka
Sahni, who topped Kurukshetra University in BA I, being offered
sweets by her grandmother Sant Kaur Sahni in Ambala on Monday. —
Photo Neeraj Chopra

Stories from Haryana towns falling in the
National Capital Region are put in NCR Tribune.

Farmers ‘must’
attend workshopsKarnal, June 30
Dr S.A.H. Abidi, member of the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, today asked the educated rural youth not to shift to cities in search of jobs. He said the rural areas also had job opportunities.

Haryana DGHS gets
extensionChandigarh, June 30
The Director-General of Health Services, Haryana, Dr B.S. Dahiya, who was to retire today, has been given a one-year extension in service according to informed sources.

Haryanvi Punjabis
asked to uniteKurukshetra, June 30
Former Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister and Chief of Haryanvi Punjabi Welfare Sabha
A.C. Chaudhary yesterday urged Haryanvi Punjabis to unite for their rights. He was addressing a function organised by the local unit of the sabha at
Shahabad, 25 km from here.

Pakistani flag set on fireAmbala, June 30
Activists of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front burnt the Pakistani flag on the GT Road, near Ambala City, here today in protest against the killing of 12 Army personnel in Jammu & Kashmir.

Flood control rooms set up in districtPanchkula, June 30
The district administration has set up six flood control rooms and Rs 17 lakh will be spent on various projects.
The Deputy Commissioner, said today that Rs 11.76 lakh had been spent on the construction of 5,212 earthen bunds and three bed bars for the protection of Rehor village from the Tangri river.

‘Hold MC meetings regularly’Ambala, June 30
Municipal councillors of Ambala Sadar today demanded the holding of House meetings on regular basis.
In a memorandum addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, the councillors said there were clear instructions of the Haryana Government that the MC House meetings should be held regularly, but ever since Mr Suresh Garg took over as the officiating president, no meeting had been called so far.

Lower surcharge on power bills
likelyChandigarh, June 30
The two power distribution corporations of Haryana, the UHBVN and the
DHBVN, will propose to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission to reduce the rate of surcharge on pending electricity
bills.

Plan to
gherao postponedChandigarh, June 30
The Haryana Roadways Workers Union has decided to postpone the proposed gherao of Transport Commissioner Rajan Gupta on July 2 following negotiations between a delegation of the union and Mr Gupta here today.

Boy drowns in
gurdwara pondSirsa, June 30
A 13-year-old boy, Himanshu, drowned in a gurdwara pond while another boy was rescued.
According to information today, Himanshu of Chandigaria Mohalla had gone to a gurdwara situated at Rania Gate.

Talking to The Tribune here he said the Chief Minister’s claims in this regard were meant to misguide the people of Haryana and to divert their attention from the core issues facing the state.

He said no agency had yet started the work on the completion of the Punjab portion of the canal. There were no funds for the purpose and even if work were to begin early there was less likelihood of completing it within a year.

Mr Surjewala said 85 per cent of the canal had been completed by 1987 when he was the irrigation minister of Haryana. After that not “an inch” of the canal had been constructed. A sum of Rs 500 crore had been spent on the canal till 1987. The cost had since escalated due to inflation and other factors. Haryana had neither allocated any funds in its Budget nor it had the financial resource to do so. The Centre, too, had not allocated any funds for the canal after 1987.

Mr Surjewala said the Punjab and Haryana portions of the canal constructed so far were in bad shape and required major repairs. These repairs would cost several hundred crores of rupees. Prolonged disuse and its frequent use by Punjab to carry flood waters to Haryana in the past had damaged the canal.

He also maintained that the Chief Minister was not pressing upon the Prime Minister to get the canal completed. Had Mr Chautala done so the canal would have been completed by now.

He said Mr Chautala was planning to hold assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha poll next year and his statement regarding the completion of the canal within a year should be seen in this light.

Mr Surjewala also asserted that the INLD’s plans to contest assembly poll in Rajasthan would come a cropper. He said all INLD candidates would lose their security deposits as had been the case with Uttar Pradesh elections.

Karnal, June 30
The Haryana Unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) here today demanded that the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr O.P. Chautala, should immediately call an all-party meeting on the SYL issue. A special meeting of the NCP, which was attended by members of its executive, heads of frontal organisations, state office-bearers and special invitees, asked the Chief Minister to explain to the people why the issue was not being resolved.

The meeting through another resolution demanded that the Dadupur-Nalwi canal, which was the lifeline for the districts of Ambala, Kurukshetra and Karnal, should be immediately constructed.

The party also expressed surprise why the construction of a thermal plant at Yamunanagar was being delayed, while construction of such plants in other parts had already started. The NCP demanded the withdrawal of cases against the Bharatiya Kisan Union leaders, including its president Ghasi Ram Nain and other office-bearers. It asked the state government not to use strong-arms tactics against the BKU leaders and their cases should be reviewed.

The meeting presided over by Mr Vedpal, state president of the party, also asked the government to direct sugar mills to pay the sugarcane arrears to farmers without delay.

The NCP called upon the Central Government to declare the MSP for wheat and paddy in advance of the sowing season. It also called for the scrapping of VAT in Haryana. It also demanded the construction of its own capital and a separate high court for Haryana.

It condemned the alleged move of the Haryana Government to “implicate its political opponents in false cases.”

It demanded that the retrenched state government employees should be absorbed in other departments.

Sirsa, June 30
Former Estate Officer (HUDA) Daveshwar Dayal has been taken to Karnal and Chandigarh under police remand.

District police chief A.S. Ahalawat said today that Daveshwar Dayal was taken to Chandigarh and Karnal to recover important documents of the department. Two police officers had been assigned the task of searching the documents at his residences in the two cities.

According to sources, it is believed that during the probe the police may collect information regarding his paternal property. It is alleged to have been involved in corruption and misappropriation of lakhs of rupees. He was arrested from his Karnal residence and was presented in the court of Duty Magistrate Chandrahas, who sent him in police remand for three days.

Karnal, June 30
The Karnal district administration will give away the Kalpana Chawla awards to meritorious students of the district in memory of the Indo-American astronaut, Ms Kalpana Chawla, on her 43rd birthday on July 1 here. The late Kalpana who was born here had her education upto Class 10 in local Tagore Bal Niketan School.

The awards will be given to those students who got 80 per cent or above marks in Classes 10 and 12 examinations of the Central and Haryana education boards in 2003.

This was stated here yesterday by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr R.S. Doon.

Karnal, June 30
Dr S.A.H. Abidi, member of the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, today asked the educated rural youth not to shift to cities in search of jobs. He said the rural areas also had job opportunities.

He was presiding over a cattle show organised at Uchana village 7 km from here, by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra of the NDRI.

Dr Nagendra Sharma, Director, of the NDRI, said there was need to diversify the crop pattern. He said bee-keeping and fish farming should be integrated, adding that the farmers should attend training programmes to adopt new technologies.

Dr J.C.
Markanday, head of the kendra, said 51 cattle were brought by the farmers to the cattle show. The cattle of Gulab Singh, Bhim Singh and Satpal were judged first while in the buffalo category, Rakesh Sharma, Manjeet Sharma and Devendra’s were declared first. Dr Abidi gave away the prizes.

Chandigarh, June 30
The Director-General of Health Services, Haryana, Dr B.S. Dahiya, who was to retire today, has been given a one-year extension in service according to informed sources.

The sources said here today that it had been decided in principle that Dr S.C. Sharma, who was to become the Director-General after the superannuation of Dr Dahiya, should be given the grade of the Director-General so that there was no resentment in the department over the extension to Dr Dahiya.

Kurukshetra, June 30
Former Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister and Chief of Haryanvi Punjabi Welfare Sabha
A.C. Chaudhary yesterday urged Haryanvi Punjabis to unite for their rights. He was addressing a function organised by the local unit of the sabha at
Shahabad, 25 km from here.

He said Punjabis comprised 36 per cent of the population in Haryana, however, they had not got due representation on various boards and government services.

Criticising the imposition of enhanced house tax, he said the government had hiked it flouting Supreme Court verdict, according to which, it should have been calculated taking the land’s purchase price as the base and not the market price as had been done by the government.

Mr Chaudhary said the Haryanvi Punjabis must unite politically for their rights. He urged them to constitute women and youth wings which would be affiliated to the
sabha.

Criticising Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s move to get his father’s statues installed in almost every town,” he said public money was being
misutilised.

Ambala, June 30
Activists of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front burnt the Pakistani flag on the GT Road, near Ambala City, here today in protest against the killing of 12 Army personnel in Jammu & Kashmir.

The national president of the front, Mr Viresh
Shandilaya, set the flag on fire. Senior leaders, including Mr Gurnam Singh, Mr Surender
Sachdeva, Mr Rajiv Victor, Mr Mohan Lal Ghel and Mr Gulshan Gulati, were present among others. The activists raised anti-Pakistan slogans.

While addressing the gatherings Mr Shandilaya said it was the second major attack on the Army camp after Kalu
Chak. He said the Army should be given free hand to deal with the terrorist outfits. He urged the President of India to direct the Union Government not to have any dialogue with Pakistan till it stopped cross-border
terrorism.

Panchkula, June 30
The district administration has set up six flood control rooms and Rs 17 lakh will be spent on various projects.

The Deputy Commissioner, said today that Rs 11.76 lakh had been spent on the construction of 5,212 earthen bunds and three bed bars for the protection of Rehor village from the Tangri river.

She said Rs 2 lakh would be spent on the construction of a stud for the protection of Natwal village and Rs 1.78 lakh for protection of Mahadev colony village from the Jhajra river and Mogi Nand complex from the Nadha
choe.

The Deputy Commissioner said separate control rooms had been set up at the block,
tehsil, subdivision and district level.

A separate police control room would also be set up at the office of the SP. Besides the revenue and development branch control rooms, the Drainage Department would have its communication network at key points. For the Tangri river the point will be the Barwala-Bataur bridge.

Ambala, June 30
Municipal councillors of Ambala Sadar today demanded the holding of House meetings on regular basis.

In a memorandum addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, the councillors said there were clear instructions of the Haryana Government that the MC House meetings should be held regularly, but ever since Mr Suresh Garg took over as the officiating president, no meeting had been called so far.

Chandigarh, June 30
The two power distribution corporations of Haryana, the UHBVN and the
DHBVN, will propose to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) to reduce the rate of surcharge on pending electricity
bills.

Major-Gen B.S. Rathee (retd), Chairman of the two corporations said here today that the rate of surcharge on bills of domestic and non-domestic categories of consumers was proposed to be reduced from 5 per cent every two months to 2 per cent. The surcharge on other categories of consumers was proposed to be reduced from 2 per cent per month to 1.25 per cent per month.

Chandigarh, June 30
The Haryana Roadways Workers Union has decided to postpone the proposed gherao of Transport Commissioner Rajan Gupta on July 2 following negotiations between a delegation of the union and Mr Gupta here today.

The general secretary of the union, Mr Sarbat Singh Punia, said Mr Gupta had given firm assurances to the delegation that the victimisation of certain employees of the Hisar depot of the roadways would be vacated and he would expeditiously take a decision on the appeal filed by Mr Dalbir
Kirmara, President of the Hisar depot unit of the union, against his dismissal from service under Article 311(2)B of the Constitution.

Sirsa, June 30
A 13-year-old boy, Himanshu, drowned in a gurdwara pond while another boy was rescued.

According to information today, Himanshu of Chandigaria Mohalla had gone to a gurdwara situated at Rania Gate. He was accompanied by his friend Gulshan, where they were taking a dip in the pond of the gurdwara, they went to the other side of the pond which was deep.

Since they did not know how to swim, they were trapped. Some people came to their rescue and managed to save Gulshan. Himanshu, however, drowned.